Needing help to reach playoffs, Giants wonder how they got to this point

William Perlman/The Star-LedgerGiants defensive tackle Chris Canty has wondered what happened to his team after losing its last two games.

Chris Canty sat on his stool in the corner of the Giants’ locker room the other day, thinking about the same thing he’d been pondering for nearly two days while stuck in Appleton, Wis., after the loss to the Packers.

How did this team get here, to the point where it needs help just to get into the postseason and to where its coach is once again perceived to be on the hot seat?

“You’ll drive yourself crazy thinking about that, won’t you?” the Giants defensive tackle said. “For me, replaying the whole Green Bay game, I was thinking about what I could have done differently. Anything you could have done differently to help the team have a different outcome up there.

“But you know that game is gone, past us now. We’re concentrating on the Redskins. I don’t want to let another opportunity pass me by.”

Tom Coughlin has a saying he has run by his players recently: “Opportunities are never lost. Someone will take the ones you miss.”

For the Giants, it feels like they’ve allowed plenty of other teams to take the opportunities they’ve missed. And though there’s still a chance the season will continue beyond this weekend — a victory over the Redskins this afternoon combined with a Bears win over the Packers, and they’re in the playoffs — there’s still the question of how exactly a team that was a half-quarter away from taking control of the NFC East and becoming one of the leading Super Bowl contenders enters today on the outside of the postseason looking in.

How shocking is it this happened?

“I wouldn’t say surprised it happened. I’m disappointed it didn’t happen,” safety Antrel Rolle said. “But when you see certain things start to fade, you have to capture it right then. The play just hasn’t been there and it works hand-in-hand with the coaches and players.”

Rolle was clearly hinting at things he didn’t want to say.

“I’m not going to say there’s a lack of focus or discipline or drive, but I felt like our attitude wasn’t the same,” he said. “I’ve seen us play dominant, tough football against many opponents this season. It seems like when it was on the line against Philadelphia, we had that motivation, we had that drive for 3½ quarters. In Green Bay, I didn’t see it at all.

“When you have opportunities to close a game out as we did and it seems like you come out flat, that’s just something you have to question.”

Rolle and others have their theories for how this team got here. Some of them involve things that happened off the field — things we may learn in the coming weeks.
But there are plenty of events that occurred between the lines. So if anyone is wondering how this team got here, the answers lie below:

Previewing the Giants final regular season game against the RedskinsGiants beat reporter Mike Garafolo and Zach Berman talk about how the Giants need to refocus and win against the Redskins to even have a chance to be in the post season. The future of the team and the running backs is also something that they think the team should be thinking about for the future. (Video by Ed Murray/The Star-Ledger)

THE DUMBEST DECISIONS

• Punting to the Eagles’ DeSean Jackson. Though to be fair, this wasn’t so much a “decision” as it was Matt Dodge’s failing to kick it out of bounds as Coughlin requested. So for the worst decision from that game, we’ll go with Kenny Phillips’ thinking about the interception instead of tackling Brent Celek on his 65-yard touchdown — the first of four in the fourth quarter.

• Kevin Boss’ trying to pick up and advance Brandon Jacobs’ fumble against the Packers last week. He realized in the postgame locker room he should have pounced on the ball. It was too late.

• Eli Manning diving headfirst in Philly. The ball came loose when he hit the ground for a fumble that ended their comeback hopes. Had Manning slid feetfirst, there would have been no fumble and the game might have been tied.

THE INJURIES

• DE Mathias Kiwanuka (neck): “I think about that all the time,” defensive coordinator Perry Fewell said. “Tom tells me don’t cry over spilled milk. You never know the impact of a player, but I think about him like, ‘Boy, if we had him, we could do this, we could do this, we would be like this, we would be like that, we could change our complexion a little bit more.’ We’ll never know, but we do miss him. There’s no doubt about that.”

Giants coach wants the team to play better against the RedskinsNew York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin told the media that in one of his many speeches to his players he told them that they have to play better. The team has to play better against the Redskins in the season finale against a divisional opponent. (Video by Ed Murray/The Star-Ledger)

• WR Steve Smith (pectoral, knee): “He’s a terrific player,” offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said. “He’s extraordinary as an inside receiver. Many times in third down (defenses) give you chances inside, so to have a guy like him in there was a great security blanket for us in terms of our playcalling and for our execution.”

• Manning’s interceptions. Early in the season, it was easy to blame them on balls that glanced off his receivers’ hands. But there was no defending his chucking balls into double, triple and quadruple coverage while throwing four interceptions last week.

THE SOMEWHAT FORGOTTEN PLAYS THAT KILLED THEM

• Safety Michael Johnson’s blown coverage on a 50-yard touchdown by Colts tight end Dallas Clark in Week 2. In the game only because Phillips got hurt, he inexplicably vacated the deep zone.

• Cowboys running back Felix Jones’ 71-yard touchdown on a screen pass in Week 10. The play was made possible by a Giants blitz from the opposite side.

• Jacobs’ getting stuffed on fourth-and-1 later in the game against Dallas, one play after Boss made a tough catch for 19 yards on third-and-20.

All that being said, there’s still a chance to add to this list today — or perhaps to render most of it moot. With the Bears vowing to play their starters against the Packers today, perhaps the odds aren’t so far-fetched.

“We’ve had other opportunities here, we didn’t come through,” Manning said. “But now we’ve got a different opportunity and let’s make the best of it.”

Said Rolle, “We have to go out there and play dominant football. We have to go out there and have that dog mentality. And I just haven’t seen that. I haven’t seen that dog mentality, speaking of last game. And that’s something we need.

“For me, this game’s not about the playoffs. The playoffs, we have to depend on someone else so I won’t get my expectations up high thinking of the playoffs. I’ll get my expectations up high thinking of going in and delivering a whupping to Washington. That’s my only concern.”